Posts Tagged ‘about’

Drake and Kanye West have been in a prolonged cold war ever since the release of Pusha T’s “The Story of Adidon.” The dis track revealed to the world that Drake had a son, and since then, Graham has been taking shots at Kanye. Recently, at the Chicago stop of the Aubrey & The Three Amigos tour, Drake rapped that “Kanye flopped,” adding to the long list of not-so-subtle shade. Finally, West responded this week during an interview on the 107.5 WGCI Morning Show.

“I was thinking just my mood, lik,e when we was talking about the Drake thing, like it hits me in a really sensitive place,” West told the hosts. “Cause you hang around people and they come to your house, be around your family and this and that, and then they get mad about a beat and they send purple demon emojis. I don’t play like that. I don’t play in that place. I don’t understand that. I’m not a gangsta like that. Look, it ain’t no beef. Ain’t nobody got beef. Ain’t nobody going to jail.”

As the conversation progressed, the Chicago mogul discussed where he thought Graham was insensitive and the idea of reconciling the relationship.

“We all got love for Drake,” he continued. “We understand that he got upset about it. I feel that it was insensitive for him in any way stress me out anyway after TMZ, while I’m in Wyoming, healing, pulling all pieces together, working on my music. You know, we’ll reconcile that one day, because we got to. Because we got work to do.”

In a Rolling Stone interview, Malik Yusef, a frequent West collaborator, discussed the potential of the Chicago artist hearing Drake’s “March 14.” Scorpion‘s closing track found Drizzy rapping about the experience of having his first child.

“I was not there, but I do know that story: [Drake] played early versions of those songs and so on and so forth,” Yusef said.

The 2018 MTV Video Music Awards are going to Astroworld. However, the show might make a pit stop in a post-apocalyptic wasteland if one Texan has his way. Travis Scott and Post Malone are bringing their unique brand of melodic havoc and destruction to the stage this year.

Scott’s first solo VMA performance, after he partnered with Thirty Seconds to Mars last year, will be a medley from his third studio album. The Houston rapper will have a lot of fan-favorite material to choose from. Astroworld’s standout “Sicko Mode” featuring Drake and Swae Lee is headed for a top 10 debut on the Billboard Hot 100. Not to be outdone, “Stop Trying To Be God,” featuring Kid Cudi, James Blake, Stevie Wonder, and Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind & Fire, already has a superb Dave Meyers-directed visual that sees Travis playing the role of Jesus, while Kylie Jenner is a golden sparkling goddess.

Post Malone has a slew of hits to pick from as well off his platinum-certified album, beerbongs & bentleys. Will he perform the tried and true “rockstar” featuring 21 Savage, decide to go with “Psycho” featuring Ty Dolla $ ign, or show off his solo chops with “Better Now?”

Both musicians lay claim to the most successful first-week totals for an album in 2018, behind Drake’s Scorpion. If projections hold, Scott’s Astroworld, will debut with 450,000 to 500,000 equivalent album units. His only competition for the second biggest release is Malone’s beerbongs & bentleys, which debuted on the Billboard 200 with 461,000.

Scott and Post will be joining a packed performance slate, which includes Ariana Grande, Shawn Mendes, and Logic with Ryan Tedder. Jennifer Lopez will perform too, in addition to accepting this year’s Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. The 2018 VMAs is set to be the year pop’s new ruling class takes over.

The 2018 MTV Video Music Awards will air live from Radio City Music Hall on Monday, August 20 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Voting is now open at vma.mtv.com!

Chance the Rapper might not be releasing an album this week, contrary to previous reports. The confusion was warranted considering that his interview with the Chicago Tribune teased that a new project was arriving “in time for the Special Olympics” — the 50th Anniversary concert of which he is producing and headlining on Saturday (July 21).

However, the update isn’t all bad news. During the discussion, the “Forever Always” rapper did describe in a very inspirational manner why his commitment to supporting the Special Olympics is important.

“I haven’t done as much work as possible with the intellectual and physical disabilities community,” Chance detailed. “But overall we’ve been about access, just trying to make sure everyone is given their chance at greatness. And greatness isn’t something segregated. When I looked into the history of the Special Olympics, that it started here 50 years ago and how many [Special Olympics] athletes we have in Chicago — 7,000 — I felt we should be a part of it.”

During the interview, Chance also opened up about the challenges of collaborating with artists in the major label system when you’re independent.

“Music has value,” he continued. “I put my music out there for free because I wanted people to see and notice it as a beacon for what I’m doing, in terms of how unorthodox I wanted my approach and my delivery of each piece of music to be… The bigger concern for artists now is navigating the legal issues of owning your music, your publishing, your distribution. It has been difficult for me to release music with artists who work with the majors. A lot of stuff I’ve worked on hasn’t come out since Coloring Book because it’s hard.”

Hopefully the labels back off of Chance because we need that Kanye West-produced seven-song album.

There probably isn’t an artist alive who could simultaneously make the summer seem like a total drag and eerily beautiful. Than again, Childish Gambino isn’t most artists. On Wednesday (July 11), Gambino released Summer Pack, which saw the Atlanta renaissance man deliver two songs — ”Summertime Magic” and “Feels Like Summer” — about the hottest season. The latter of the pack is where Childish uses the metaphor of summer to illustrate a growing list of anxieties.

Here is a short tally of everything Gambino is worried about: over-reliance on algorithms, global warming, water scarcity, the decline of bird and bee populations. The entire second verse deals with these overwhelming feelings of angst and dread.

Every day gets hotter than the one before
Running out of water, it’s about to go down
Go down
Air that kill the bees that we depend upon
Birds were made for singing
Waking up to no sound
No sound

In fairness to Gambino, the bees are indeed dying. A 2017 study by the Center For Biological Diversity of 4,337 North American and Hawaiian native bees found that “nearly 1 in 4 (347 native bee species) is imperiled and at increasing risk of extinction, as a result of agricultural intensification, climate change, and urbanization.” As far as water goes, the UN reported that 5 billion people might suffer from water shortages by 250, via The Guardian.

Welp, “This Is America” after all, and at least the apocalypse might be soundtracked by Gambino’s sweet falsetto.

One can learn many things from a breakup, like the joys of sending reckless DMs or eating alone at a restaurant as you sneer at everyone condescendingly judging you. For Nicki Minaj , she learned that single life can actually be super inspirational. In her latest cover story for Elle, Minaj discussed what it was like being single for the “first time in my life” and how that affected her upcoming album.

“I went through a moment where I got to know myself again, and then I went through a moment where I got to know myself as the rapper again,” Minaj said. “And then I locked [myself] in the studio” — see? — and I didn’t want to leave. Spiritually, I’ve experienced more growth in the last six months of my life, of my career, than I have in the last eight years.”

In the past, Minaj has been linked to Safaree Samuels, Meek Mill, and, most recently, Nas. The two New York rappers reportedly split in late 2017, according to TMZ.

Elsewhere in the interview, the “Chun-Li” rapper described the challenges of being in relationships and how she got through the transition of being on her own again.

“I remember feeling like I could do anything at one time in my life and somewhere along the line, I just started second guessing myself, for whatever reason,” she said. “As soon as I realized that I could actually live and breathe, and eat and sleep, and walk and talk without having a boyfriend, something clicked in me.”

Minaj’s latest song, “Rich Sex,” is about why one shouldn’t have intercourse with brokies and fits nicely into the discussion she had during her cover story. Hopefully, when Queen arrives on August 10, fans will get a more complete look at Nicki’s thoughts about relationships, breakups, and everything in between.

Meek Mill has been on a prolific press run since his release from prison. The Philadelphia rapper has been interviewed by outlets as varied as NBC’s Dateline and Hot 97. Today (May 10), Mill appeared on “The Breakfast Club” to discuss his opioid addiction, having conversations with Kanye West, and how it feels to be free. One of the most illuminating moments from the Philadelphia MC’s visit was him sharing his thoughts on his ex-girlfriend Nicki Minaj and her comments on his incarceration.

“I wasn’t feeling that,” Mill said. “She shouldn’t have said nothing. And we leave it at that. I don’t feel no way. She know I wasn’t feeling that.”

“When it comes to freedom and stuff like that, I don’t care who it is,” Meek continued. “This could be Safaree, this could be anybody — if I know something, and that man’s freedom is on the line and I could say something to help the situation, it’s right or wrong.”

In an April Beats 1 interview with Zane Lowe, Nicki was asked about Meek Mill and his ongoing issues with the criminal justice system. ThePinkprint rapper mentions that she had no problems with Genece Brinkley, the controversial judge who presides over Meek’s case.

“The judge in question did everything I asked of her,” Nicki said. “So I can’t bad-mouth her because I met her personally and I know what she said to us, and he [Meek] knows that.”

Nicki later told Lowe that she will go into more detail about Meek on her album. It looks like the former lovers both have a lot to get off their chest with their new music.

TRL guest KYLE is slowly becoming the king of collabs, but Sway Calloway was most interested in a recent studio session with Chance the Rapper, Quavo, Rich The Kid and French Montana that he casually posted on Instagram. KYLE wouldn’t reveal too much about what went down, but he did share some highlights from the experience.

After that, he explained the origins of his strong bond to Kid Cudi’s music and how the rapper got him through a hard time in his life. “I felt like I found somebody who understood,” said KYLE. “He showed me the power of music. You can save somebody’s life with it.” Needless to say that meeting Kid Cudi at Coachella was the ultimate full-circle moment for him. He adds, “I was so happy to see my superhero in the flesh.”

KYLE also opened up about what it means to have his own holiday in his hometown of Ventura and the importance of giving back to his community. TRL airs on weekdays at 8:00am ET!

Last week, G-Eazy was reportedly arrested in Sweden after an altercation at a nightclub, where he allegedly assaulted a security guard and was found in possession of cocaine after an issue with a fan, according to a TMZ report. The Bay Area rapper was ultimately charged with assaulting an officer, violent resistance, and illegal drug possession, reports Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.

Yesterday (May 6), G-Eazy broke his silence on the matter and went to Instagram to issue an apology. In his statement, The Beautiful & Damned artist describes being “grateful & blessed” to be free and briefly alludes to the arrest.

“Embarrassed & apologetic beyond words about the incident,” wrote G-Eazy. “But above all I’m so fucking grateful they let me go, craziest experience of my life, awful night with a lot of bad luck and some even worse decisions but like I said I’m grateful as fuck to be a free man, back on tour performing for the fans.”

“Thank you to everyone who’s held me down along the way and supported this journey,” G-Eazy continued. “I appreciate you more than you’ll ever know. Love.”

The altercation in Sweden isn’t the first time the California artist has fended off questions about his drug use. On a January interview on “The Breakfast Club”, the “Him & I” rapper was asked about rumors of his drug use after photos leaked of him with Halsey.

Lil Xan is a complicated artist. On the hook to his hit song “Betrayed,” the California artist raps, “Xans don’t make you / Xans gon’ take you / Xans gon’ fake you / And Xans gon’ betray you,” but has also admitted to being on the drug when creating the song. In a new interview, MTV’s Push artist for the month of May opened up about his battle with addiction.

“If you were following me since the beginning, you see my journey,” Xan said. “From when I was struggling with addiction to “Hit My Line” all the way through “Betrayed,” you followed me on the journey to that better place.”

Xan goes on to detail the story of how he became addicted to the medication.

“I got anxiety in April of 2014,” the Total Xanarchy artist continued. “I was hospitalized for two weeks and they didn’t know what was wrong with me, and at the end they gave me a low dosage of Xanax. Before the whole anti-Xanax message in what I do, I was actually pro-Xanax culture.”

Thankfully, Xan ends his interview on a positive note as he discusses the underlying message of his music.

“Performing is the one time I don’t have anxiety, surprisingly right?” Xan concludes. “People are like, ‘How do you perform in front of thousands of people?’ I don’t know if it’s the adrenaline that kicks in or something, but it’s really the only time I’m at peace… I want everybody to know they’re not alone. That’s why I do this.”

Watch Lil Xan perform his Diplo collaboration “Color Blind” below, then watch him break down why it is one of his favorite songs.

Kanye West has made his musical return, and there’s no way it sounds like anything you might’ve predicted. Unless, that is, you guessed that his first new song since 2016 would be about poop.

On Friday night (April 27), the Chicago rapper — who’s been causing drama all week with his divisive, Trump-supporting tweets — tweeted the link to his website, which now auto-plays a song called “Lift Yourself.” The majority of the track features a chorus of soulful voices singing, “Lift yourself up on your feet, let’s get it on.” Almost two minutes in, ‘Ye speaks over the track, saying, “They don’t realize though, this next verse, this next verse though, these bars, watch this.” He then launches into a “verse” in which he mostly raps a variation of, “whoopdedy-scoop, whoopdedy-whoop-scoop-poop,” followed by an abrupt end. You just can’t make this shit up.

Hours before the song’s release on Friday, West teased “Lift Yourself” by tweeting, “I’m going to drop a song with a verse that will bring Ebro the closure he’s been seeking.” Ebro, of course, is the radio host Kanye’s been semi-feuding with all week. He also added, “the bars,” with a ton of fire emojis to really drive his point home.

Head to kanyewest.com to hear the song in full, and look out for more new music soon. The rapper recently announced that he has a new solo album arriving on June 1, followed by a collaborative project with Kid Cudi on June 8. Let’s hope he gives us some fresh bars that aren’t just about poop.